Štrba is a village in the

Poprad District Poprad District (''okres Poprad'') is a district in the Prešov Region of eastern Slovakia. The district had been established in 1923 and from 1996 exists in its current borders. It consists of 29 municipalities, from which three have a town statu ...

, Prešov Region, northern

Slovakia Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the s ...

. It is situated in the Sub-Tatra Basin, which separates the

High Tatras The High Tatras or High Tatra Mountains ( Slovak: Vysoké Tatry; pl, Tatry Wysokie; rue, Высокі Татри,'' Vysoki Tatry''; hu, Magas-Tátra; german: Hohe Tatra; french: Hautes Tatras), are a mountain range along the border of norther ...

and

Low Tatras The Low Tatras or Low Tatra ( sk, Nízke Tatry; hu, Alacsony-Tátra) is a mountain range of the Inner Western Carpathians in central Slovakia. It is located south of the Tatras proper, from which it is separated by the valleys of the Vá ...

at the European continental divide between the

Baltic Baltic may refer to: Peoples and languages * Baltic languages, a subfamily of Indo-European languages, including Lithuanian, Latvian and extinct Old Prussian *Balts (or Baltic peoples), ethnic groups speaking the Baltic languages and/or originati ...

and the

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Rom ...

. It is approximately 16 km (10 mi.) west of the city of

Poprad Poprad (; hu, Poprád; german: Deutschendorf) is a city in northern Slovakia at the foot of the High Tatra Mountains, famous for its picturesque historic centre and as a holiday resort. It is the biggest town of the Spiš region and the t ...

Etymology

Slovak ''Štrba'', ''Štrbina''—a narrow place (a gap, a cleft, etc.). The name is probably related to an old trade route between

Liptov Liptov () is a historical and geographical region in central Slovakia with around 140,000 inhabitants. The area is also known by the German name ''Liptau'', the Hungarian ''Liptó'', the Latin name ''Liptovium'' and the Polish ''Liptów''. Etymo ...

and

Spiš Spiš (Latin: ''Cips/Zepus/Scepus/Scepusia'', german: Zips, hu, Szepesség/Szepes, pl, Spisz) is a region in north-eastern Slovakia, with a very small area in south-eastern Poland (14 villages). Spiš is an informal designation of the territory ...

. The Hungarian (1321 ''Csorba/Chorba'') and the German name (1431 ''Tschirban'') come from the Slovak.

History

Historical records first mention Štrba in 1280 as a medieval village of The Kingdom of Hungary. The village owns the lands around the mountain glacial lake, and now resort, of

Štrbské pleso Štrbské pleso (, german: Tschirmer See, pl, Szczyrbskie jezioro, hu, Csorbató or ) is a picturesque mountain lake of glacial origin and a top tourist destination in the High Tatras, Slovakia. It is the second-largest glacial lake on the Sl ...

, to which it gave its name. Locals had started to profit from the construction of High Tatras facilities at the end of 19th century.

Geography

The municipality lies at an altitude of 829 metres and covers an area of 43.463 km². It has a population of 3,653 people. Its detached borough of Tatranská Štrba hosts the

Štrba railway station Štrba railway station ( hu, Csorba vasútállomás; sk, Železničná stanica Štrba) is a break-of-gauge junction station serving the village of Štrba, in the Prešov Region, northeastern Slovakia. The station forms part of the standard gau ...

, the valley terminus of the

Štrbské Pleso–Štrba rack railway The Štrbské Pleso–Štrba rack railway is a gauge narrow-gauge railway in the High Tatras. It was built in 1896 and reconstructed in 1970. At the valley terminus (Štrba railway station), it connects to the standard-gauge main line between B ...

, and a stop on one of Slovakia's major railways. The mountain resort settlement of

Štrbské Pleso Štrbské pleso (, german: Tschirmer See, pl, Szczyrbskie jezioro, hu, Csorbató or ) is a picturesque mountain lake of glacial origin and a top tourist destination in the High Tatras, Slovakia. It is the second-largest glacial lake on the Sl ...

also belongs to the village.Štrbské Pleso patrí mestu Štrba (Štrbské Pleso belongs to the town of Štrba) – newspaper Pravda, 3 May 2007 (in Slovak)
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References

External links

Municipal website
Villages and municipalities in Poprad District {{Prešov-geo-stub